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Arguments Against The Vietnam War Essay

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1. What were the arguments for and against the war? The Vietnamese War was a controversial conflict, with many arguments for and against it.
Arguments for the Vietnam War: Containing Communism was one of the primary justifications for the Vietnam War was the belief that it was necessary to contain communism in South Asia. The U.S. government saw Vietnam as a critical battleground in the Cold War and believed that if South Vietnam fell to communism, it would set off a chain reaction of communist expansion throughout the region. Arguments against the Vietnam War: The Human Cost was one of the strongest arguments against the Vietnam War was the human cost of the conflict. The war caused the deaths of thousands of American soldiers and millions …show more content…

Where do we see examples of class divisions in the protests and social commentary around the war? (cite specific instances) Upper class(non-fighting, politicians, leading war effort: Upper class benefits from its position by doing Draft Resistance. One of the clearest examples of class divisions in the protests around the Vietnam War was draft resistance. Wealthy Americans could obtain deferments or avoid the draft altogether, either by enrolling in college or seeking medical exemptions. This led to resentment among working-class and poor Americans, who were more likely to be drafted and sent to fight in Vietnam. "The Kids(protesters) are putting us in, and the papers are putting us in; Lindsay is out advocating rebellion." Middle class(Vietnam protesters, College students):, Primarily, the middle class led the protests; anti-war protests also revealed class divisions. Many leading anti-war activists were middle-class or upper-middle-class students and intellectuals who could participate in protests and engage in civil disobedience without fear of losing their jobs or going to jail. On the other hand, working-class Americans often faced more significant economic and social risks if they protested or opposed the

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Bibi Barrera APUSH 3/13/18 P1 Short Answer Rewrite The Vietnam War was a war that happened to last 20 years. The United States did not agree with the spread of communism so they sided with South Vietnam. The U.S happened to get involved due to wanting to stop the war because they didn’t want it to spread. It impacted the world due to it being the first war to become televised and people were upset because people were dying.

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The Vietnam War was fought between the North and South Vietnamese over Communism. The North pushed for a communist regime while the South favored a more democratic government. During the time of this war, the U.S. was pushing towards containing Communism, and vowed to support any nation resisting communism. Although America’s policy of containment had good intentions, this often led to the support of corrupt leaders and governments. President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam was Catholic and did not lead well.

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Another group opposing the war were universities. The students first reaction to the announcement was mixed as some people supported war and some didn’t. At first the students who opposed the war had a cautious approach and mainly protested by sending open letters to newspapers, encouraging the government to negotiate with Viet Cong and North Vietnam. However when conscription was introduced the students really began to come out in force against the war. As the war went on, the wider community also had a lot of opposers, even though majority of the community were supporters at first.

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The Vietnam War is known as the first war America “lost.” The loss of lives was a devastating number. The American government was very secretive as to their plans in Vietnam. Although President Johnson said that the US had no desire to get involved in the war, he and close government officials prepared in case they truly needed to go to war. The public was eased into a false sense of security.

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The Vietnam War, which lasted from 1955 to 1975, was one of the most divisive and controversial conflicts in American history. It was a military conflict between the Communist North Vietnam, and South Vietnam, with the United States and other Western powers supporting the Southern Vietnamese. The war was fought in the context of the Cold War because the United States feared that Communism would spread throughout Southeast Asia if North Vietnam managed to take control of the entire country. The war had such a profound impact on American society, and still remains a subject of intense debate and analysis today. After World War I, Vietnamese leader, Ho Chi Minh, expressed many grievances against the French colonialists.

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One of the most controversial wars in history and a turning point in American foreign policy, the emotions and events surrounding the Vietnam War capture the essence of the era. The rise of rebellious youth culture and anti-war and anti-draft movements were key social aspects of American life leading up to and during the fighting. (Doc 2, 3) On the political side, Congress aimed to control the Chief-Executive with legislation such as the War Powers Act of 1973, requiring the president to remove all unreported troops in Vietnam and report any further sent. (Doc 7) To say the country was divided would be a massive understatement.

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With a slow economy and rising inflation, workers had intentions to share in the profits that were gained in the post war period. However, as the government and management resisted the unions’ demands, the workers’ anger grew, and the majority of them illegally walked off the job. Milligan believes that, as a result, these demonstrations not only influenced other Canadian workers to do the same, but also inspired workers in the United States to behave similarly. He

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What did the United States lose in the Vietnam War? The Vietnam War wasn’t actually a war it was a police action or that is what the government told the citizens back in the United States. If your ask any of the soldiers that went over there they will tell you different, they soldiers did not want to be there for the friend that they lost and for what their leaving at home and it damaged the image and the integrity of the United States. The resources that was lost during that was outstanding and all of the Military vehicles that was either lost or destroyed in combat was up in the thousands.

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As we discussed in class, Nixon ended the war by pulling troops from South Vietnam, which led to the Fall of Saigon, where many innocent people were left behind and taken by North Vietnam. The US spent billions of dollars on the Vietnam War, just to lose. The US could have used that money to benefit its citizens. It also left a lot of innocent South Vietnamese citizens, who helped the US, behind. Many of those people could have been saved, but they weren’t.

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Many working-class Americans continued to struggle, and income inequality

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They viewed New Deal programs as hand-outs to the lower class, whom they resented. The programs were financed out of the taxes sourced from those that still had an income and their interest felt ignored by Roosevelt who was focused on the impoverished and unemployed. These frustrations increased tensions between the classes due to their differences that weren’t understood. According to Relation of Class, "Upper-class Americans, sensitized by the Russian Revolution not two decades before, feared that a class war might be on the horizon as a number of workers joined the Communist party.” However, such a large scale of violence never occurred.

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lost the war because they didn’t overthrow communism. The U.S. thought that the ‘domino effect’ would work but it didn’t. The U.S. lost the support of the public in the United States because they were tired of losing soldiers and their loved ones who went to war. During the war the U.S got 220,000 guns, 114 billion bullets, 4,500 artillery pieces, and 1.8 million artillery shells, but the time the war was over they lost three-fourths of the ammunition that they had when they started the war. The United States and South Vietnam lost a bunch of soldiers.

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The Vietnam war was preceded by a very turbulent time in our history with problems here in the states such as racism, women’s rights, and a president being shot. But in Vietnam they were going through a civil war, which they had done before, but not to this extent, this time they got the U.S.S.R. involved. It was communist Russia and North Vietnam against South Vietnam. The U.S. started to get

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Picture a kid who finds himself in a dangerous situation. He is backed into a corner by an attacker, and if he does not fight back, he will not be able to survive this interaction. If the boy were to kill that attacker, what punishment would he deserve? Some may say that the punishment for murder should always be death, but this statement can be seen otherwise. Based on the situation of the murder, some punishments may serve more justice than execution, the crime may have been committed in self-defense, or the criminal could have been reformed into a better person.

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Also, newspapers revealed stories and government secrets that proved that the American people were being lied to ( New York Times vs. the United States). The Vietnam war is believed by some to be a war deeply rooted in economics. Many aspects of the United States were affected directly. The Great Society programs were suffering because the money that was put towards the war, could have been used to help poverty programs.

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